Brevia – Wakefield saga continues… struck off

Andrew Wakefield, the doctor behind the MMR-vaccine scare, has beenstruckoff by the UK’s General Medical Council. While this forbids him from practicing in the UK, he has lived in the USA for the last several years. (Reports say that the ruling does not affect his ability to practice medicine outside the UK.) He previously resigned (or was removed) from his position in Thoughtful House in the USA and has had his controversial research paper retracted, with another withdrawn. The Times Online has a timeline of events spanning over the 12 years of this on-going story.

As others point out, this is unlikely to be the last we will hear from or of him. Latest reports include media interviews and him providing the ‘keynote’ speech for anti-vaccine rally.

Ben Goldacre has penned a substantial follow-on article, â€œNever mind the factsâ€, in the Guardian centred around a documentary (â€œHear the Silenceâ€) to screen in the UK which relates to the vaccine-MMR dramatics that Wakefieldâ€™s work and the subsequent media coverage (letâ€™s not leave the mediaâ€™s role out) stirred up:

[…] on Somali immigrants in Minnesota, USA. Wakefield has already had his licence to practice medicineÂ withdrawn, and his research work has beenÂ described as fraudulent in the British Medical Journal and […]

Code for Life is the blog of Dr Grant Jacobs who has wide-ranging interests in science-related subjects, especially genetics, bioinformatics and science communication. To learn more about Code for Life (topics, copyright, comments, writing), see About Code for Life Twitter: @BioinfoTools

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